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The Toronto Maple Leafs announced on Wednesday that the 2017 Rookie Tournament will be held at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto from September 8 to September 10, 2017 and will feature prospects of the Leafs and division rival Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators.
Last year’s rookie tournament conflicted with the start of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, which precluded first overall pick Auston Matthews from participating, but this season will likely include Toronto prospects Jeremy Bracco, Yegor Korshkov, Martin Dzierkals, Adam Brooks, Jesper Lindgren and current members of the AHL Toronto Marlies.
The tournament being hosted at Ricoh (home of the Marlies) is a departure from the Leafs normal routine, who have played a four team round-robin tournament the last four years at Budweiser Gardens in London, ON.
Schedule
Friday, September 8 - Montreal vs. Toronto 7pm
Saturday, September 9 - Ottawa vs. Montreal 7pm
Sunday, September 10 - Toronto vs. Ottawa 4pm
Tickets will be available for purchase as a three-game package for as low as $30 (plus applicable taxes and fees) beginning Tuesday, May 30 at 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster.ca.
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Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman mentioned on Tuesday’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast that the Colorado Avalanche had asked for and received permission to speak to Toronto Maple Leafs Assistant GM Kyle Dubas.
Dubas, 30, has been with the Leafs nearly three years and brought an analytics-based aspect to the Toronto management team led by Team President Brendan Shanahan, and has served as GM of the Marlies and as interim GM along with Shanahan and Mark Hunter until current GM Lou Lamoriello was hired in July, 2015.
Many have thought that Dubas was serving an apprenticeship and was the heir apparent for the Leafs GM job, but the promotion of Hunter to Assistant GM last August and Lamoriello not showing any signs of retiring with a year left on his contract may have altered the landscape. Shanahan has modeled his management team after the Red Wings, who had current GM's Steve Yzerman and Jim Nill as assistants and lost them to Tampa Bay and Dallas.
Toronto was approached by the Arizona Coyotes to speak to Dubas about their vacant GM position after the dismissal of Don Maloney last summer, but were denied. There were also indications that the Buffalo Sabres had interest in speaking to him regarding their GM position before settling on Jason Botterill.
Interest from Colorado does not mean that Dubas’ departure is a fait accompli.
Terry Frei of the Denver Post reported earlier this month that VP of hockey operations and GM Joe Sakic still has the confidence of Avalanche president Josh Kroenke in spite of the club’s 30th place finish in 2017.
Adding an experienced GM to help Sakic or a GM-in-waiting to the management team might be a direction the Avs will go (which is the reason they would want to talk to Dubas), but how much power is given or what guarantees of future control may be the difference between Dubas staying put with the Leafs or heading to Denver in the near future.
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